Christopher Pyne claims gay porn ‘like’ was a Twitter hack

CALLS for an investigation into the hacking of Christopher Pyne’s Twitter account after it ‘liked’ a gay porn tweet have been dropped.

Senior government minister Christopher Pyne has blamed a hacker for liking a gay porn tweet from his official Twitter account. Picture: AAP Image/Lukas Coch.

CALLS for an investigation into the hacking of Christopher Pyne’s Twitter account after it ‘liked’ a gay porn tweet have been dropped.

Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese has confirmed the party will not support Cory Bernardi’s calls for a full investigation and report into the Defence Industry Minister’s twitter hack at 2am on Thursday morning.

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Senator Bernardi, who called for the probe over concerns national security may have been compromised, accused Labor and the government of a cover-up this morning.

“The two party fix is in. Nothing to see here except a compromised and broken two party political system covering up for each other,” Bernardi wrote on Twitter.

Mr Albanese said this morning that he had spoken to Opposition leader Bill Shorten overnight and both were satisfied there was no threat to national security.

“We’re satisfied that this is a public Twitter account, there’s no connection between the Twitter account and Christopher’s Defence portfolio,” had told the Nine Network’s Today Show.

“He’s taken action to deal with it so as far as we’re concerned, it’s over.

“As far as we’re concerned, let’s get on with the real issues facing the country.”

Mr Shorten appears to have had a change of heart after his comments to reporters in Adelaide yesterday that the hack was a “serious” concern.

Mr Pyne told the Nine Network this morning the hack was designed to be embarrassing.

He rejected any suggestion national security could have been compromised and said his office had taken the necessary steps to deal with the hack.

“It’s a private twitter account, it’s not a Defence or government or parliamentary account,” he said.

“We’ve changed the passwords, we’ve obviously deleted the material, changed our approach in the office to social media and informed Twitter.”

He said the hack was annoying and there appeared to be some campaign against him.

“It happened in the time of the Yes vote being successful and I guess people thought they were being, probably not funny, [but] trying to be unhelpful,” he said.

“It don’t think it was designed to hurt, I think it was designed to be embarrassing.

“And obviously the people responsible did quite well out of it.”

Mr Pyne denied that he “liked” the explicit post on Twitter, saying he had been hacked while he was sleeping at 2am after celebrating the results of the same-sex marriage survey.

He posted on Twitter: “Someone tried to hack my social media yesterday. Maybe they are making mischief over the plebiscite?”

I was hacked overnight! I was 😴 at 2am. Someone tried to hack my social media yesterday. Maybe they are making mischief over the plebiscite?

— Christopher Pyne (@cpyne) November 15, 2017

The controversial Twitter “like” follows the results of Australia’s same-sex marriage postal survey, which found a majority were in favour of same-sex marriage.

Mr Pyne’s office later said an attempt was also made to hack his Facebook, but that there were “no defence or security implications” and that “all appropriate action had been taken”.

The Opposition Leader said he felt for Mr Pyne over the “unpleasant experience” but it was a serious matter which should be investigated.

“It is most serious when any minister, especially a Defence Minister, is a victim of a hacking,” Mr Shorten said.

“Defence, our national secrets, we need to make sure they have top protection.

“I think a lot of people are more than just a little bit concerned if our government information doesn’t have adequate protection.”

The tweet also prompted Senator Cory Bernardi to consider moving a motion in the Senate over the hack, claiming there could be a threat to Australia’s national security.

“Deeply concerned about national security implications of (the) hacking of Pyne’s social media account,” he tweeted this morning.

“Need full investigation and report in case is foreign agent trying to influence elections.”

Senator Bernardi’s tweet was accompanied with a photo of a Notice of Motion he plans to move in the next Senate sitting.

Deeply concerned about national security implications of hacking of Pyne’s social media account. Need full investigation and report in case is foreign agent trying to influence elections. #auspol pic.twitter.com/JT447lqygK

— Cory Bernardi (@corybernardi) November 15, 2017

Craig Searle, co-founder of cyber security firm Hivint, said people who did not follow “good password practices” were much more vulnerable to their social media accounts being breached.

He said people should use “pass-phrases” rather than passwords, because they were easier to remember and harder to hack.

He also encouraged the use of password managers to store different passwords needed for work and personal reasons, and to turn on multi-factor authentication where available.

Federal MPs have received several high-level briefings about cyber security in recent months after the “WannaCry” ransomware attack.

Facebook also ran workshops for politicians in Canberra to help assist with their social media security earlier this year.

Mr Shorten said cyber security was a growing issue and that the incident with Mr Pyne could provide lessons for other MPs.

Pyne’s Twitter hacking claims come a month after a suggestive, explicit image appeared on former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett’s official Twitter account.

At the time Mr Kennett said he didn’t know how the image of a clock featuring a naked man with his privates animated to swing like a pendulum, appeared on his account.

“What a start to the day. I don’t know how that’s happened, I don’t know how it got there, if I’ve been hacked or not,” he told the Herald Sun.